As a general rule potatoes are harvested once a year. The potatoes are commonly stored in large quantities that require cooling and other processing in order to properly preserve the potatoes for an extended duration. Sugar beets, onions and other food products may be handled in a similar way to potatoes.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, in one known prior art arrangement, potatoes 10 (or other food products) are stored atop a vented pipe system having one or more lengths of vent pipe 12. As seen in FIG. 2, the vent pipe 12 includes two sets of large (e.g., greater than about three inches in diameter), downward facing openings 14 along a lower portion of the vent pipe, with each of the openings 14 intersecting multiple corrugation crests and valleys. Cooling air and treatment agents (e.g., sprout inhibitors) are moved through the vent pipes and the openings 14 allow the air and agents to move into the potato mass for cooling or other treatment. The currently used corrugated metal pipe has a 2⅔″×½″ configuration (i.e., 2⅔″ from corrugation peak to corrugation peak, and ½″ from corrugation peak to corrugation valley), may be formed of 12 or 14 gauge material and may have diameters ranging from 15 to 36 inches. The ends of the pipe, which typically contain sharp edges and burrs due to the end cuts used to produce the pipe lengths, are subjected to a grinding operation to remove such burrs.
The relatively low gauge material that is currently used results in a vent pipe that is relatively heavy and difficult to move, which makes the process of seasonally setting up the potato vent pipe systems, and later cleaning and storage of the pipes, labor intensive, and therefore costly. The grinding operation is also labor intensive and therefore increases the cost of the vent pipes. Moreover, in some cases the openings used do not provide desirable air flow to all areas of the potato mass (e.g., at the top of the pipe) and do not provide desirable distribution of the treatment agents. It would be advantageous to provide a vent pipe configuration and related system that addresses one or more of these problems.